PEORIA -- From a news release:
Remembering the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo 70 Years Later on April 14
Peoria Public Library will mark the 70th anniversary of the Doolittle attack on Japan by showing the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo on the big screen at Main Library Auditorium on Saturday, April 14 at 1:00 p.m. Both the movie and parking are free.
America’s morale was low and the country was desperate to gain an edge after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, former stunt pilot and air racer, planned a daring raid using a never before tried tactic. Doolittle led 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier to mainland targets in Japan, taking the enemy completely by surprise. Doolittle’s forces sailed on the carrier Hornet to within 650 miles of the Japanese coast where they were spotted by a Japanese boat. Doolittle continued and launched strikes against Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Jagoya and Osaka on April 18, 1942. Although little damage was done, the raid energized the United States and made Doolittle a hero. The tactics he used changed the course of the war.
The 1944 MGM film 30 Seconds Over Tokyo tells the story of the April 1942 attack on Japan. Based on the book of the same name and cited for it’s remarkable accuracy, this film even used film footage from the actual raid. The original movie was based on the book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Today many others books, including a biography of Jimmy Doolittle, are available at Peoria Public Library. Read one before or after the movie, or just as a tribute to the brave men of the Doolittle raid. Try these books: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted W. Lawson, Jimmy Doolittle: Daredevil Aviator and Scientist by Carroll V. Glines, or Doolittle’s Tokyo Raiders by Carroll V. Glines. For a quick overview of the Doolittle raid or research for student reports, try the ABC/CLIO database under e-library at www.peoriapubliclibrary.org.
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